Fujifilm FinePix S3200 Overview

Posted: 01/05/2011

The Fujifilm FinePix S3200 features a body designed to look reminiscent to that of an SLR, although it's actually a fixed-lens camera. Based around a 14 megapixel image sensor, the front panel of the S3200 bears a Super EBC Fujinon-branded 24x optical zoom lens. The S3200's lens offers actual focal lengths from 4.3 to 103.2mm, which equates to 35mm-equivalent focal lengths ranging from a generous 24mm wide angle to a very powerful 576mm telephoto. Maximum aperture varies from f/3.1 at wide angle to f/5.9 at telephoto. The image sensor allows capture of not only high-resolution still images, but also of high-definition 720p video at a rate of 30 frames per second. Given the extreme telephoto reach, mechanical image stabilization is obviously a necessity to fight blur from camera shake, and the Fuji FinePix S3200 includes sensor shift stabilization. There's no true optical viewfinder on this model, with images and movies being framed and reviewed either on an electronic viewfinder of unspecified resolution, or on a 3.0-inch LCD display with 230,000 dots of resolution. That's roughly equivalent to a 320 x 240 pixel array, with each pixel comprising separate red, green, and blue colored dots.

As well as automatic exposure, the S3200 provides full manual control over shutter speeds and apertures, as well as both aperture- and shutter-priority modes. The Fujifilm S3200 includes face detection capability able to locate and track up to ten faces in a scene. Going a step further, it can also be programmed to recognize the faces of eight specific individuals, who can then be prioritized automatically when recognized in a scene. It also provides both smile and blink detection capability, i-Flash intelligent flash metering, automatic upload of images and videos tagged on camera to Facebook and YouTube via the provided Windows-only MyFinePix Studio software, automatic red-eye removal, and a motion panorama mode that stitches up to three separate shots into a single image. Power comes from an unspecified number of AA batteries, and information on battery life wasn't available at press time. Connectivity includes a mini-HDMI high definition video output. Further details on this model were not available at press time.

The Fuji FinePix S3200 ships from February 2011, priced at around $250.